POLICE have launched an urgent investigation after a human heart was found.
The terrifying discovery was found by workers in Humphrey’s County at a Department of Transportation Facility.
A search will continue by Authorities for any further remains “if there are any to be found.”
The discovery was confirmed by Sheriff Chris Davis.
He said a worker found an “adult male human heart” on Thursday, December 15.
He told WKRN: “I’ve been on some crazy stuff, but this is by far, one of the most unusual crime scenes I’ve ever been on”.
He continued, “We are treating this as a crime scene. We are working very diligently to find or not find anything else at this location.”
Sheriff Davis said that it is speculated the heart could have been in the salt pit “for just a few weeks”, although the time frame could be hard to determine due to the salt’s effect on the organ.
“At first they thought it was a rock… the process of what salt does to that, it dries it out.”
According to Sheriff Davis, the heart has been sent to the Medical Examiner’s Office in Nashville and investigations will continue.
“TDOT’s on board working with us to try and find any kind of information about where the salt came from and when it came in,” he added.
A statement by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said that, “An initial examination of the heart determined that it was that of an adult male”.
Also, “Additional DNA testing will be performed to try to determine its origin. This remains an active and ongoing investigation.”
Davis told WKRN-TV in Nashville that the facility was being treated as a crime scene. He encouraged anyone who thinks they might have information about what might have happened to reach out to TBI or the sheriff’s office.
“Everybody’s somebody’s somebody, and at the end of the day it would bother me if I laid down my head at night not knowing that we’d done everything we can for this person and this person’s family,” Davis told The Associated Press.
Eric Thompson